It is known that many surfactants are useful in cleaning formulations, such as hard surface cleaners and solid or liquid laundry detergents. Among the surfactants which have been found to be particularly useful in these applications are mixed amine oxides, i.e., amine oxides in which the organic groups attached to the amino nitrogen include at least one long-chain group and at least one short-chain group.
The amine oxides employed in the cleaning compositions are most commonly dilute aqueous solutions, since they are ordinarily synthesized as such; but they are sometimes solids obtained by spray-drying, evaporating, or after-treating the dilute solutions.
As taught in copending applications S. N. 07/591,425 (Borland et al.)now U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,501, 07/591,426 (Smith et al.-I) now U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,488, and (Case AM-6292-A) (Smith et al.-II) Ser. No. 07/724,127 (now abandoned), solid amine oxides which have advantages over the dilute solutions and over the solids obtained by previously-known techniques can be produced by preparing the amine oxides completely or partially in dihydrate form and, if desired, then converting the product to an oxide containing a lesser amount of water, e.g., the monohydrate or anhydrous form.
The amine oxides and other surfactants employed in cleaning compositions are frequently employed in conjunction with bleaching agents, such as sodium percarbonate or perborate -- materials which are not surface-active themselves. It would be advantageous to develop a material which could serve both as the surfactant and the bleaching agent in such compositions.
Oswald et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society, Mar. 1963, pp. 651-657, teach that lower trialkylamine oxides can form unstable hydrogen peroxide adducts which are highly soluble in water and alcohol and only slightly soluble in ether, acetone, and benzene and some of which are crystallizable.